| Better communication, partnership needed in TCI reforms | | Print | |
| Written by Richard Green/richard@fptci.com | |||
| Wednesday, 23 March 2011 15:52 | |||
 U.K. officials and the interim government need to improve communication with the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands and be partners with them to move the country toward sustainable democracy. That is what Director of Overseas Territories Colin Roberts and Robert Hannigan, director general in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, heard from local politicians, the governor’s Advisory Council, the Consultative Forum, business and community leaders, and others in meetings March 21-23. A year ago, Roberts said he found a reluctance among people to speak out about the country’s problems, but that isn’t the case now. “I can assure you over the last two and half days, things feel very different,” Roberts said today (March 23). “People have a huge amount they want to talk about … and they are not afraid to stand up and say what they think.” “We heard that people don’t feel that they know all that they want to know about the interim government,” he said. Those consulted also said they “want to participate more in the reform process,” Roberts said. “They want it to be their process, not our process. And think that is very important. It’s something we have to respond to because we want it to be your process.” People also felt that the interim government was not being sympathetic to the effects that financial hard times and government reforms were having on regular people, he said. When the U.K. assumed direct rule of the country in August 2009, it fully expected to allow elections as scheduled in July 2011, Roberts said. But that was before it understood the depth of the government’s financial disaster, which was the major reason that elections were postponed indefinitely. Among those things affected by financial problems was the startup of the Special Investigation and Prosecution Team (SIPT) that is looking into allegations of corruption in the former government. Reversing the position of the former U.K. government, the new coalition government recently paid for the SIPT’s work in full so far. While no prosecutions have commenced, Roberts said the U.K. has closely monitored the SIPT and is satisfied that it is on track and “justice will be done.” Echoing His Excellency the Gov. Gordon Wetherell’s repeated stance, both Roberts and Hannigan said the U.K. wants government returned to the people as soon as practical. “This interim government is probably one of the very few governments in the world that wants to see itself out of office as soon as possible,” Hannigan said. “We hope very much that this will come to an end next year with elections. That’s our firm hope.” Roberts said the U.K. is already “looking to the transition … to an elected government. Fundamentally, this is something we need to do with the people of the TCI.” Although the governor will be leaving when his three-year term ends in August, Hannigan said there needs to be a smooth transition to elections and local rule. The new coalition U.K. government is committed to helping all Overseas Territories with experience and financial support to make sure that situations like that in the TCI never happen again in any territory, Roberts said. “The government moved very quickly to realize that it had to act to prevent Turks and Caicos Islands from failing completely and falling into total bankruptcy,” Robert said. “A huge amount of work has been done on this.” Tourism is approaching record levels this year, public finance has been stabilized with needed reforms and a $260 million loan guarantee from the U.K. at very low interest rates, Roberts said, and police have made good progress in the fight against crime. One thing the interim administration cannot do is decide the TCI’s future, Roberts said. “It has to be your vision, not ours.” Both Roberts and Hannigan continued to stress the milestones set by Under Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Henry Bellingham in December:
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